Miss Elisheva Rosen, a freshman at Rutgers, needs some big, strong men to carry a fainting couch up to her dorm room. Here is her cry for help op-ed in the school newspaper:

This week, nearly halfway through the fall semester, close to 1,000 students woke up in Rutgers University residential dorms to find that the very place that they have called home for the past five weeks, the very place where students have felt safe, had been violated by a piece of paper that was shoved under doors, penetrating the rooms where students were sleeping. [Emphasis mine — RD] I believe this tactic contains hateful propaganda and was distributed as an attempt to harass and intimidate students at the University. Rutgers prides itself on its diversity and acceptance, creating a safe haven for students to be able to live without fear of bias intimidation and harassment. However, this aura of acceptance and safety was cruelly ripped away in the early hours of the morning by the few who gleefully utilize propaganda and the cover of night to exploit students emotionally through the incitation of fear with words full of bias and hate. The bullying antics of such perpetrators cannot — should not — be stood for by Rutgers students, faculty, alumni, and board members. There is no place at Rutgers for those who promote the use of bullying, harassment and other scare tactics to violate the privacy and emotions of Rutgers students. As a first-year student, I feel that my door is not a billboard for the intimidation politics of strangers who are intentionally trying to exploit me emotionally. Shoving hatred under my door violates the very principles of security, tolerance and justice that Rutgers stands for.

Elisheva Rosen is a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student.

Oh for heaven’s sake. The leaflet shoved under their doors was a pro-Palestinian prank.  It was obnoxious, if effective, and if I lived on campus, I would hope the administration would ban everyone from shoving unwanted material — political propaganda, religious tracts, Chinese restaurant menus — under dorm doors. But for an actual adult to describe the stupid thing as if it were a rape, or an act of terrorism, is pathetic.

As someone whose politics are generally unsympathetic to Palestinian activism, I would suggest to Miss Elisheva Rosen that if she doesn’t want her delicate emotions violated, or to be exposed to opinions she finds offensive, college might not be the right place for her.